Testing a sensor which alerts the viewer about significant content coming up in a programme. Photograph: Sarah Hartley/guardian.co.uk

The research and development building at MediaCityUk looks much the same as all the others standing close by - tall, glass, open plan - but inside, this 'laboratory' is nothing like its uniform style exterior, it's a myriad of specialised areas.

There's the room where user experience is assessed and monitored. It's full of strategically positioned cameras, microphones and one of those dual-way glass screen things that police interview areas have on detective shows.

"It's sort of Guantanamo mixed with Minority Report" explains one of the people working in this space, researching the optimum typography for accessibility of font on screens.

Not far away, another team position an array of microphones in a room where the sound as we enter has the deadened feel of a recording studio. Here the work to create 3D sound is being tested with technology which gives the listener the feeling of sound coming from above or below as well as from each side.

As part of an invited tour of the facilities, we got to hear some of the material being worked on - from raindrops landing on an invisible umbrella above our heads to a recreation of the experience of being in the audience for the recent performance by Elbow at Manchester Cathedral.

The research being carried out by senior technologist Chris Dunn and his team considers everything from how the shape of person's ears effects the listening experience to microphone technology. This will inform the products and services developed as the BBC pursues an agenda which is described as "advancing the technological state of the art of the media industries."

The laboratories (spread across two sites in London as well as Salford) are tasked with providing value for the organisation by opening revenue streams or saving money through the adaption of workflows or technologies with a budget of £13-16m.

Designing the user experience with a snales and ladders Photograph: Sarah Hartley/guardian.co.uk

It's a point the Project Director for R&D North Adrian Woolard is keen to push - for every £1 spent in the labs, the corporation expects to see a return of £2.

So some of the 50 active projects re-invent internal processes for content production, such as avoiding the data capture stage of film to allow for editing over the internet, while others look at ways of enhancing the viewers or listeners experience.

There's work underway which could mean viewers of sports such as Olympic swimming seeing the exact angle of the dive and a corresponding on screen graphic showing the level of splash for each competitor or the ability to follow all the action at Wimbledon by zooming in and out of each court.

Imagine watching Dr Who and a dalek in the room coming to seek you out behind the sofa, prompted wirelessly into action at a connected point in the onscreen story!

Or being able to search through the huge archives of content for every clip related to a particular topic or locate a programme by the mood it generates in the viewer.

It's a place of geeks and boffins, a 'what-if?' sort of environment where technology can be pushed outside of the constraints of daily programming needs.

As we left the labs to head off, staff could be seen waving on a screen in the corner of the room, gesticulating and holding up diagrams and discussing their work with colleagues. But those colleagues were several hundred miles away. That Minority Report feeling seems to be rubbing off on the daily routine in Salford.

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